Maybe it was not the storybook ending the Wesleyan men’s tennis team envisioned, but the team was satisfied with a ninth place finish at the NESCAC tournament at Amherst last weekend. Despite not having a single player advance out of the second round, the Cardinals played well against a very competitive field and managed to improve on their finish from 2004.
“I’m a little disappointed that we finished 9th,” said Mike Roguly ’05. “It would have been nice to finish ahead of Colby, but we did better than last season so I guess that’s good.”
In the ace’s tournament, Max Kates ’06 won his first match in convincing fashion, 6-4, 6-0, but lost to the eventual bracket winner, Mac Burke of Bowdoin in the second round.
“Mac ended up winning the tournament, and rightly so because he was playing very well. He’s a senior and it was his time,” Kates said. “The NESCAC tournament is a real challenge, because it is basically a tournament of the top players at each of the 11 NESCAC schools; it’ s a pretty intimidating group of guys.”
In the third seed, Matt Cron ’05, playing the final matches of his career, shredded his way into the second round with a solid win over his Colby opponent, only to suffer a similar fate to Kates in his second round match.
Mike Roguly ’05 and Jack Rooney ’07 each played their way into the second round as well, adding to a solid first round showing for the Cards. Both players would fall in the second round as well, unable to escape what seemed to be the destiny of Cardinal singles on the day.
“My first match was a joke, but my second was just the kind of match I was looking for,” Roguly said. “I was playing a very talented player from Bowdoin, but felt that the match was very winnable for me. I had my opportunities. Unfortunately, the opportunities I missed were the most crucial. You can’t always have everything go your way.”
Tallen Todorovich ’07 and Evan Rhodes ’05, the second and fourth seeds, lost their first round matches. Todorovich also dropped his match in the consolation bracket, but Rhodes, thanks to a win over a Connecticut College player, advanced to the consolation finals. Ultimately, he lost out to his opponent from Williams.
In doubles, the Cardinals had an especially rough outing, as only Cron and Roguly managed to score a win.
“I think it could have made a difference if we had gotten more points in doubles,” Roguly said. “That [doubles] has been our weakness all year so it is not surprising that we did not do well at the tournament level.”
The rest of the team agreed. An obviously frustrated Rooney identified doubles as the key to the Cards tournament finish.
“We had very little production in the doubles department, and this is really what gave us the 9th place finish,” Rooney said. “Our singles lineup, however, is arguably stronger than schools like Tufts and Colby, and yet, we finished behind them because our doubles just couldn’t produce.”
In their first match in doubles, Cron and Roguly, a pair of Cardinal seniors in their final matches, destroyed a duo from Connecticut College, 8-1, but lost out in the second round to a strong pair from Williams, 8-4.
“In our final match, Roguly and I played as well as could be expected,” Cron said. “We hung in there against a very good Williams team. A few key points were the difference in our match.”
As for their losing effort in doubles, Kates and Rooney summed it up as a long day and a frustrating match.
Many of the players on the team believe the 2005 spring season was a changing of the guard for the Cardinals.
“[Next year] we’re going to have a completely different team,” Rooney said. “Whether or not this will be a good or bad thing will be largely decided by the incoming freshmen. Guys like Cron, Roguly, Stone, Evan, and Basile are Wesleyan tennis, and really have been for the last four years, so what comes next is the beginning of something completely new.”
“We will miss the seniors…each of them brought something to the table,” Kates added. “Evan brought organization and leadership; Cron brought good looks and a consistent game; Stone brought stalwart doubles play and all the intangibles of being a WesCeleb; Roguly brought that So-Cal flair; and Basile brought our fan base – freshman girls and Beta brothers.”
The graduating seniors, looking back over four years in the program, were saddened to see their Wesleyan tennis careers come to an end.
“I had a great four years playing tennis here,” Roguly said. “It is going to be sad not playing next year and I’m especially going to miss playing with the other seniors that I’ve been with since freshman year.”
“It’s been a good career and I’m happy that I went out playing at the top of my game,” Cron said.